John Wick inspired action movies are popping up everywhere these days and Netflix has another one just around the bend. “Kate” has all the kinetic blood-soaked markings of a Wick flick. And while I’m always up for a stylish hyper-violent romp, the real draw here is the film’s lead, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. After getting back-burnered in her last film “Birds of Prey”, here she takes center stage and judging by the first trailer she’s relishing every second.
In “Kate” Winstead plays an assassin (of course) assigned to kill a prominent Yakuza leader. But the hit goes south after she discovers she has been poisoned. With roughly fifteen hours to live Kate sets out to find who’s responsible, leaving a trail of carnage in her wake. Speaking of “carnage”, Woody Harrelson pops up as her handle/contact/mentor…something like that. It’ll be interesting to see how he fits in with everything. I like the look of this and I love seeing Winstead get a meaty action role.
“Kate” premieres September 10th on Netflix. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
One of the most talked about movies from this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Sian Heder’s “CODA”. The heartwarming coming-of-age story follows 17-year-old Ruby, the lone hearing member of her culturally deaf family. Both written and directed by Heder, “CODA” is an English-language remake of a 2014 French dramedy “La Famille Bélier”. It had its premiere at Sundance and was quickly gobbled up by Apple for a record setting $25 million.
While “La Famille Bélier” was set on a dairy farm in rural France, “CODA” (short for ‘child of deaf adults’) is about a family of fishermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Emilia Jones plays Ruby who we first meet on her family’s boat reeling in nets and separating flounder, crab, and the occasional leather boot. She works the tub with her salty and grizzled father Frank (Troy Kotsur) and her ambitious old brother Leo (Daniel Durant), both deaf. Back home the fourth member of the Rossi clan is Ruby’s mom Jackie (Marlee Matlin), also deaf. Together they make for a feisty but loving group.
Image Courtesy of Apple Studios
One of the great accomplishments of “CODA” is its ability to enlighten while also expelling myths about the deaf community. Heder puts a ton of effort into portraying the Rossi clan as a normal everyday family who in many ways aren’t too different than anyone else. They laugh, they squabble, they get on each others nerves. And like so many other families working the North Shore, they feel the financial strain of the struggling fishing market. Most importantly, Heder gives plenty of attention to each individual family member, fully fleshing out their unique personalities and trusting the cast to bring them to life.
At the same time Heder doesn’t shy away from the real-life day-to-day challenges that comes with being deaf. In many ways Ruby is our conduit to a better understanding of the struggles at home and out in the community. Sometimes it’s small things like the inability to gauge volume – the loud rattling of dishes, the noisy lovemaking coming from her parents’ bedroom, or the blaring music (Frank likes hip-hop, not for the music itself but for the vibration he feels from the speakers). Other hurdles have more serious implications especially when a local commission starts putting the squeeze on area fisherman. Frank fights to keep their business afloat, but without Ruby present, communicating with the all-hearing public is next to impossible.
This makes it especially tough for Ruby who is counted on to be her family’s interpreter and general go-between. Ruby loves her family deeply, but she’s carried this obligation since she was a child and it’s wearing her down. “I’ve been interpreting my whole life,” an exasperated Ruby laments. “It’s exhausting.” To make it worse, it doesn’t allow Ruby to pursue her real passion – singing. She has the voice but doesn’t have the nerves to sing in front of people nor does she have a family she can share it with.
Enter quirky choir director Bernardo Villalobos (a delightful Eugenio Derbez). He sees something in Ruby and pushes her to trust her voice and believe in herself. It’s a trope we’ve seen countless times – the inspirational teacher breaking through to the insecure pupil. But as with many things in “CODA”, underneath the familiar exterior is a warmth and authenticity that’s hard to resist. And as Mr. V. predictably encourages Ruby to pursue her passion, even pushing her to audition for Boston’s Berklee College of Music, we’re with her every step of the way.
Image Courtesy of Apple Studios
That aforementioned authenticity can be found all through “CODA”, from the rich blue-collar setting (filmed on location in Gloucester) to the way it normalizes the deaf community’s experience (I would guess 50% of the film is in American Sign Language). Mostly it’s in the characters who feel rooted in the world we see and driven by organic emotions. This is partly due to how well they’re written, but also because of the performances. Casting three incredibly talented deaf actors (including one Oscar winner) made all the difference and together with Jones the four share a remarkable chemistry.
And I also have to say that “CODA” is legitimately funny. The laughs come natural and frequently while also being honest and reverent. The humor makes for a great compliment to the coming-of-age drama which follows a pretty conventional blueprint but enhances it with a uniquely fresh perspective. And even though you get a good sense for where the movie is heading, the story is so joyously earnest and deeply affecting that you won’t care. There’s a magic to that and the folks behind “CODA” have it. “CODA” opens August 13th on Apple TV+.
So I had completely forgotten there was a new “Cinderella” movie coming until yesterday when Amazon dropped their first trailer. Hopefully it won’t take me long to forget it again. This particular first look doesn’t do the upcoming fantasy musical any favors. Originally slated for a big screen release, Sony Pictures axed its theater run and sold the film to Amazon Studios. Good move Sony.
Written and directed by Kay Cannon, “Cinderella” is a modernized retelling of the classic fairy tale and stars Camila Cabello in the titular role. It looks like the bare basics of the original story are there – a young woman is kept from going to the ball by her wicked stepmother, but with a little magic she finally gets to go and meets her Prince Charming. But that’s about all in terms of similarities to the original story. This looks to be an aggressive overhaul which brings along a certain level of uncertainty. And the cringy dialogue, bad jokes, and iffy music certainly doesn’t help.
“Cinderella” premieres September 3rd on Amazon Prime streaming. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
In “Lorelei”, the feature film debut for writer and director Sabrina Doyle, an ex-con, a single mother, and three children form the backbone of this blue-collar story set in the Pacific Northwest. On the surface it’s an unconventional family drama about people trying to find their way individually and together. But underneath it’s a movie about pressing forward and not being anchored to the past.
The movie opens as a man named Wayland (Pablo Schreiber) is getting out of prison after serving a 15-year sentence for armed robbery. After a night of boozing with his biker buddies Wayland checks into a halfway house ran by the amiable Pastor Gail (Trish Egan). Shortly after, he bumps into his old girlfriend Delores (Jenna Malone) and the two quickly reconnect. We learn that they were high school sweethearts and had big plans together. “We were something, me and you,” she laments.
But instead of moving to Los Angeles and spending their life together, Wayland went to prison and Delores went through a rough patch of her own. Now he’s an ex-con and she’s a struggling single mother of three working as a housekeeper at a rundown motel. But they still share a mutual affection and soon Wayland has moved in with Delores and her three children (played with stunning authenticity by first-time performers Amelia Borgerding, Parker Pascoe-Sheppard, and Chancellor Perry). It feels like a recipe for disaster and an arrangement doomed to fail.
Image Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
Thankfully Doyle writes textured characters who are firmly grounded in the real world. They don’t fit any conventional mold so we’re never sure how things are going to turn out. She doesn’t gloss over their flaws or sugarcoat their failures. In fact, it’s impossible to condone some of the choices her characters make. But at the same time Doyle gives us glimmers of hope – faint and often hard to recognize, but hope nonetheless.
Also, Doyle’s story dodges many of the trappings that often come with this type of subject matter. “Lorelei” could have easily been just another small town tragedy. And while there are tragic elements, the movie digs deeper into real-world experiences that many will relate too. It’s all strengthened by Doyle’s working-class roots which gives her a clear-eyed perspective into the struggles of economically depressed communities and those drowning under the poverty line. There is a palpable realism in the situations her characters face and the choices the make feel natural.
While “Lorelei” plays like an authentic slice of life, dramatically it stays on slow simmer. Nothing about it feels false, not the characters or their stories. But it more or less stays in one gear. And it introduces several compelling supporting players, but (with a couple of exceptions) few of them are given more than a scene, two at the max. But in fairness to Doyle, she has a very specific story she’s telling and her laser-sharp focus on that story is what makes the movie tick. It looks great and the performances are terrific. But it’s Doyle’s grounded true-to-life perspective that gives “Lorelei” its pulse. “Lorelei” is now showing in select theaters and on VOD July 30th.
As someone not all that acquainted with the world of tennis, the name Richard Williams doesn’t really ring a bell. But even an out-of-the-loop know-nothing like me can tell you about his two famous daughters Venus and Serena. The new film “King Richard” looks at the life of the tennis pro and father who trained two of the greatest tennis players to play the game. It’s an interesting choice to focus on Richard Williams, but one that lets the filmmakers lean on the star power of Will Smith.
The first trailer dropped a few days ago and much of what we see looks like a pretty traditional biopic. Smith is giving the kind of performance that the Academy eats up – transforming and with the kind of big scenes that grabs the attention of voters. All that said, there is an inspirational story at the film’s core and Smith is an actor who can deliver with the right material. There are also two compelling young actresses playing the super-talented sisters (Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton).
“King Richard” hit theaters November 19th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
Tom McCarthy’s new drama “Stillwater” turned several heads and caught many by surprise during its recent premiere at Cannes. On the surface the film looked and sounded like an action thriller about a father leaving his home and going abroad to save his daughter. But that tissue-thin reading misses what the movie is after. “Stillwater” is much more of a character piece and human study built around one of the best performances of Matt Damon’s career.
As an actor, Matt Damon‘s versatility is too often overlooked. From “Good Will Hunting” to the Bourne films; from “Oceans” to “The Martian”; from the grimy underworld of Scorsese’s “The Departed” to the offbeat zaniness of Soderbergh’s “The Informant!”. Damon has been in westerns, war movies, and biopics. And in just a couple of months we’ll see him as a medieval knight in Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel”. That’s the kind of résumé he brings to “Stillwater” where he takes on the role of stoic Oklahoma roughneck Bill Baker.
Image Courtesy of Focus Features
Damon and McCarthy spent weeks imbedded with real Oklahoma oil drillers both at home and on the job in an effort to get Damon’s character right. Their research paid off and Bill Baker comes off as a real person rather than some bad Red State caricature. That’s crucial because the movie needs for us to believe in Bill but more importantly connect with him on a human level. It’s absolutely necessary.
McCarthy opens his story by giving the audience a snapshot not only of Bill‘s life, but of blue-collar living that will resonate with some and feel completely foreign to others. A shut-down oil rig leaves Bill unemployed and forced to take low paying construction jobs. In the opening scene he’s helping clean up debris in a tornado-ravaged trailer park. After getting paid he stops at a Sonic drive-in and orders a foot-long cheese coney with a large cherry limeade. He takes it home to his small wood-framed house, asks a blessing over his simple dinner and then eats. The evening ends with him sound asleep on the couch with nothing but the flickering glow of the television lighting the room.
That short but detail-rich opening gives us a good sense of the attention McCarthy and Damon give the character. And we get even more when Bill boards a plane and flies to Marseilles, France to visit his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) who’s in prison for a murder she says she didn’t commit. Allison has been behind bars for five years and her repeated claims of innocence falls on deaf ears. The local government has no interest in reopening or relitigating her case which is a position Bill just can’t accept. He gets nothing from Allison’s lawyers and he can’t afford the private detectives. So he sets out on his own following a trail that may or may not provide the answers he’s looking for.
There’s a fish-out-of-water element to “Stillwater” that’s essential to the story and rarely played for laughs. Back home Bill would effortlessly blend in, with the kind of average Joe appearance that people would pass and never take notice. But in Marseilles he sticks out like a sore thumb. His thick bushy goatee, a camo cap, his Carhartt button-up shirt tightly tucked into his dark blue Wrangler blue-jeans. And that’s just the physical barrier. There are also language and cultural walls that Bill runs into face-first. In many instances he tries to ram through them rather than look for a door. It’s a compelling part of the story, but it’s also where McCarthy’s scolding touch can get a little heavy.
Image Courtesy of Focus Features
Some of Bill’s enlightenment is predictable – an unsophisticated Okie goes to a foreign country and has his eyes opened – you know the story. And we get some good scenes involving both Bill’s stateside smugness and the local condescension he faces. But much more interesting than Bill’s culture clash or his quest to exonerate his daughter is the deeper and more personal journey Bill takes. Much of this comes after he meets a sympathetic single mother named Virginie (a terrific Camille Cottin) and her precocious young daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud). The relationship Bill develops with them brings out a side he didn’t know he had while offering him a chance at personal redemption.
Much like he did with his 2015 film “Spotlight”, Tom McCarthy gives his story all the time it needs to play out. At a hefty 140 minutes, “Stillwater” may stick around a little too long for some audiences. You could probably prune several scenes and the movie would still be fine. But I prefer McCarthy’s approach which keeps the characters front-and-center, giving them and their relationships room to grow even if it means running a little long. “Stillwater” is now showing in theaters everywhere.
Keith & the Movies 